In 2013, two government politicians and two local businessmen began discussing how a future casino industry might look in Bermuda.

The revelation came in a public access to information request made by The Royal Gazette in which the men’s ultimately unrealised plans were disclosed.

It came amid disclosure of many of their e-mail conversations, which were finally released, along with those of others who tried to get the island’s gaming sector up and running.

The information also revealed concerns that the Bermuda Gaming Commission raised about their potential involvement, under both the One Bermuda Alliance and Progressive Labour Party administrations.

The Royal Gazette’s exclusive report detailed how discussions started in October 2013 and got into motion the next month, when Shawn Crockwell, then tourism minister, paid a visit to Mexico to see how cashless gaming worked in Guadalajara’s Twin Lions Casino.

Mr Crockwell’s security arrangements saw a former agent from the US Drug Enforcement Agency and a former military general being hired to look after his security on the trip.

The bodyguards were hired by MM&I, a private technology company hoping to convince Mr Crockwell and his Cabinet colleagues that they had a product to offer that would help keep any future casinos in Bermuda free of corruption.

The company also booked the minister’s stay at the five-star Quinta Real Guadalajara hotel and “secure transportation services” while there.

Bermudians Mike Moniz and John Tartaglia, owners of MM&I, were out to impress, hoping to become the sole government-approved providers of a cashless gaming software system for the island that they had developed with US partner company Banyan Gaming.

Although casinos were not yet legal in Bermuda, the pair, who had no experience in the gaming industry, knew that Mr Crockwell and his fellow Cabinet minister, Mark Pettingill, wanted to introduce them to boost tourism.

Details of the exchanges, fleshed out a story first told in a 2017 special report by The Royal Gazette, were littered throughout a trove of e-mails disclosed by the Cabinet Office on the orders of the Information Commissioner.

E-mails disclosed the discussions and attempted dealmaking that went on behind the scenes more than a decade ago, well before the Bermuda Casino Gaming Act was enacted.

Today, attempts to set up the sector have stalled seemingly indefinitely, with no bank on the island willing to handle the proceeds of casino gaming and a regulatory body that was “streamlined” recently after costing taxpayers more than $16 million since its inception.

Later, the Government said it was pursuing amendments to banking legislation as a lifeline to bringing gaming to Bermuda.

Arianna Hodgson, the Junior Minister of Finance, told the Senate that amending the Banks and Deposits Companies Act would allow banks to undertake transactions with businesses registered by the gaming commission, with an amendment order to be published in due course.

She said the commission had secured independent expertise in the area.

Shadow finance minister Douglas De Couto accused David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, of “playing games” with the public on casinos, after the exact six-figure salaries of the Bermuda Gaming Commission’s executives were revealed by The Royal Gazette.

The three senior executives in charge of the commission earn almost $50,000 a month between them, the report revealed.

In response to a March 2023 Pati request, the quango released exact salary details for chief executive Charmaine Smith, who picks up $18,750 a month or $225,000 a year.

Dwight Furbert, the director of finance and human resources, is on $15,417 a month ($185,004pa) and legal director Marvin Hanna is on $13,563 a month ($162,756pa).

Dr De Couto questioned whether there was any benefit to continued spending on the commission, which has cost taxpayers more than $16 million since it was formed, and said the Premier had failed to live up to his word about the opening of the island’s first casino.

The trial opened of Syhon Akinstall, who was accused of murdering two people in a premeditated “hit” as they celebrated a birthday at the Robin Hood Pub and Restaurant in October 2021.

Mr Akinstall, 22, denied the murders of Ayinde Eve and Micah Davis, as well as the attempted murders of Troy Eve Burgess and Derrick Golding, a police sergeant.

He has also denied four counts of the use of a firearm to commit an indictable offence, namely the alleged murders and alleged attempted murders.

Details of the police investigations into the murders emerged as the trial progressed, but the accused was freed in July after the jury was instructed to return a verdict of not guilty because of insufficient evidence.

A murder investigation was launched after a woman was shot dead in a Pembroke neighbourhood in the early hours of June 7.

Police said the woman, Diante Trimm, a 37-year-old mother of five, was shot at a residence on South Terrace near Friswells Hill Road in Pembroke at about 12.30am.

Bermudian drivers in the Azores were arrested and fined in Azorean courts over a longstanding grey area that technically renders Bermuda driving licences invalid.

More Bermudians are travelling to the Azores, a group of Atlantic islands and one of the autonomous regions of Portugal, since regular SATA Azores Airline flights from Ponta Delgada began four years ago.

Residents said that they also encountered problems in Japan, the United States and Iceland, as well as across Europe, and questioned why successive Bermuda Government administrations were unable to secure a resolution.